1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to health care, and more particularly to a pill counting device and method for using the pill counting device
2. Description of the Related Art
Among other things, pharmacies commonly supply pills and other medication in prescription vials for holding their medication after the patients leave the pharmacy and their appointment with the doctor. Some patients when they come to the pharmacy with their prescription scripts are in pain and wish to take their medication immediately in accordance with the doctor's signa, which is a Latin term to label the prescription according to dose, route of administration and frequency of use. The only concern of the patients under these circumstances is that the medication will provide some relief from the pain that they suffer and/or cure the ailment. Since the inception of the pharmacy, the tools that have been used to fill the tablet/capsule prescription drug order has been the pill counting tray and spatula. These tools are based on technology that has been in existence for more than 80 years. However, these devices are still used today by the pharmacy to manually fill, accurately count and dispense the medication into the prescription vials. This process is repeated over and over again with the same pill counting tray and spatula. There is no attempt to prevent the contamination of the next patient's medication by the medication of the previous patient. However, many patients are allergic to some kinds of medications, and it is possible for the patient's medication to become contaminated with the previous patient's medication and for the patient to sustain a serious allergic reaction without knowledge of the source of the contamination. The contamination could occur during the filling, counting and dispensing of the patient's medication.
Thus, a disposable pill counting device solving the aforementioned problems is desired.